PV

AirWater and Suichoku Solar K. K. have launched a 178 kW vertical PV system at a Tottori parking lot, operating under an on-site PPA. The Verpa-based system, a first for the San’in region, maximizes space, avoids snow damage, and reportedly delivers power equivalent to rooftop solar installations.

Researchers in the United States found that shading from agrivoltaic systems reduces grain numbers in both sorghum and soybean, but sorghum can partially compensate by increasing grain weight while soybean cannot. The study shows that sorghum and soybean respond differently due to their physiology, offering guidance for crop selection and management to minimize yield penalties in agrivoltaics.

Chinese module manufacturer Longi says its Hi-MO 9 series with HPBC 2.0 cells achieved watt-for-watt power gains of 1.21% to 3.92% in real-world tests across multiple countries and climates, lowering the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) compared with mainstream tunnel-oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules.

A Swedish government agency is investing SEK 130 million ($13.8 million) in the next-generation indoor solar cell technology belonging to Exeger. The company’s Powerfoyle solar cells are an evolution of dye-sensitized solar cells and are said to offer 1,000 times better conductivity.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado as the National Laboratory of the Rockies, a change it says aligns the institute’s mandate with the Trump administration’s applied energy priorities.

Researchers in China developed a new compressed air energy storage system that uses flooded roadways in abandoned coal mines to store compressed air and heat for nighttime power generation. Simulations show the design can achieve 71.5% thermal efficiency, stable performance, and higher energy density at greater depths, with minimal long-term impact from air leakage.

The procurement exercise had initially attracted 1,387 project proposals with a combined capacity of 17,537 MW, according the Italian energy agency GSE.

The Japanese electronics manufacturer is testing its glass-based perovskite solar PV technology in office windows made by YKK AP, a construction and building materials company.

Renewables research firm Pexapark says Europe’s independent power producers (IPPs) are evolving into customer-centric platforms with a focus on adding battery energy storage systems (BESS) to their portfolios and more structuring and pricing capabilities to prepare for the next wave of deals.

The Southern Johor Renewable Energy Corridor (SJREC) forms part of a $6 billion project developing a 2,000 kilometer-squared hybrid solar and battery energy storage system zone set to connect South East Asia.